Robert Ensor

Who was Robert Ensor?

Sir Robert Charles Kirkwood Ensor was a British writer, poet, journalist, liberal intellectual and historian.

Born in Milborne Port, Dorset, he was the son of Robert H Ensor and his wife Olivia née Currie. He was educated at Winchester School and Balliol College, Oxford where he achieved a first in Greats and also the Chancellor's Latin verse prize. He was President of the Oxford Union in 1900. He became involved in left-wing politics, publishing a selection of writings of leading socialist theorists as Modern Socialism in 1903. He failed at his attempts to become a fellow of Merton, St John's and All Souls but later became a tutor at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

In 1902 he became leader writer for The Manchester Guardian. In 1905 he moved to London where he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple. From 1909 - 1911 he worked for the Daily News and from 1912 - 1930 for the Daily Chronicle. Ensor lived in Poplar, and from 1910 - 1913 represented the area on the London County Council as a Labour Party councillor.